Rewrite the Past
by prepare4trouble
Summary: A series of stories about the life of future Tommy prior to my story 'The Warning'. It might help to read that first.
1. Goodbye

_Re-write the Past_  
_Chapter 1: Goodbye_

Tommy could smell the unmistakable smell of Gorath blood as he entered the lair.  Merton had had a good go at protecting himself, Tommy just hoped it wasn't in vain.  He couldn't bear to think of life without him.  He turned and ran faster than he had ran in his life, following the scent into the park, where it began to become mingled with another.  Merton's blood.  Tommy felt his chest begin to tighten in panic, his legs were shaking but he couldn't slow down.  He had to keep going, all the time silently praying that Merton had been wrong, that it was possible to change the past, that he could be saved.

The smell became almost unbearable as he reached a clearing in the trees.  Slowing down to avoid making unnecessary noise he crept closer.  Merton was laying on the floor, his clothes were soaked with blood and there was a hideous gash reaching from his forehead, across his left eye to the middle of his cheek.  The blood was matted in his hair and stained most of his face.  The feeling of panic clutching at Tommy's chest worsened and his heart rate increased in volume until all he could hear was its pounding but at the same time he felt intense relief.  Merton was alive, but only just.  

Tommy stepped out of his hiding place in the bushes and rushed forward.  Merton looked at him and the faintest flicker of a smile played across his lips.  Tommy knelt down on the ground next to him, fighting the tears that were threatening to fall.  Merton's remaining eye fixed on him, then quickly looked upwards as an almost inaudible sound escaped from his lips.  At the same time Tommy sensed something moving behind him and saw a shadow pass across Merton's face as the light of the moon was blocked out.  The Gorath.  He turned with a cry of rage, all or his anger, fear and pain went into his first blow, knocking the creature backwards, then he kicked, punched and screamed, attacking the monster with an intensity he had never before imagined possible.  He didn't know how long it lasted, but the monster had no chance to put up a fight.  Tommy grabbed a dagger from the floor next to Merton's hand, he must have used it to inflict his own wounds on the monster, and thrust it forwards into the body of the Gorath which gave out a sound that fell somewhere between a gasp and a cry before disintegrating into a thousand pieces.  The bolt of energy flew upwards from the ground in exactly the same way as it had a few days previously when Tommy had killed the Gorath's mate, but this time Tommy was ready for it and dove expertly out of it's way, landing next to the figure laying on the ground, his eyes now closed and his breathing shallow.

"Merton," he whispered, gently touching his lover's face.  Merton's right eye flickered open and looked at Tommy, "It's okay," Tommy told him, "It's dead, you're going to be alright."  He knew even as he said it that it wasn't true.  Merton had lost far too much blood for there to be any chance of him surviving, and Merton knew it too.

He shook his head slightly, showing that he didn't believe Tommy, that Tommy didn't have to lie to him, "Told you," he croaked, each word a huge effort to force from his lips, "Can't change the past."  His breathing had slowed even more and he was fighting to remain conscious, "Love you…" he said as his eye closed slowly despite his effort to keep it open and looking at Tommy for the longest possible time.  

Tears flooded from Tommy's eyes, and the lump in his throat almost prevented him from speaking, but he managed, he had too, it was his last chance.  "I love you too," he whispered, "so much.  You can't leave me now, please…" but it could do no good.

Merton heard Tommy's words and felt the warm teardrops land on his face.  It was so unfair that they should realise their feelings only to be denied the lifetime together that they deserved.  The smell of his own blood filled his senses, Tommy was still speaking but he could no longer hear the words, only the comforting sound of his voice.  His last thoughts before he faded into the great beyond were of relief that Tommy was with him at the end, that the last thing he had seen had been Tommy's face, the last thing he heard was his voice, he didn't want to die, but more than that he didn't want to die alone.

Tommy stayed with Merton's body for long afterwards, unwilling or unable to move from the boy who had come to mean so much to him over the past months, unable to believe that he was really gone, that he would never see his smile or hear his voice again.  

It was there that Lori found him the next day, asleep and tightly embracing the one person he loved more than anything else in the world.  He was shivering in the cold of the morning, his face stained with tears.  

It was there he vowed that when he got his chance to travel backwards in time he would save Merton, or he would die trying.


	2. Love and Regrets

_Re-write the Past  
Chapter 2: Love and Regrets_

The sun was shining brightly down onto the two figures that lay side by side, barely clothed on the deserted beach. Tommy opened his eyes and blinked at the blinding light of the sun, reaching hastily for the sunglasses that lay half buried in the sand next to him. Lori was sleeping, he was sure of it. His werewolf senses were much more acute than a normal human's and he could hear her slow breathing over the roar of the ocean.

He sat up, leant over and kissed her gently on the lips. Her eyes flickered open, shielded from the harsh light of the sun by Tommy's shadow. She smiled, "What was that for?" she asked.

Tommy grinned down at her, "'don't let me fall asleep, I'll burn,' you said. I promised I wouldn't. I'm a wolf of my word."

"Thank you," she said, smiling again, "I can't let anything ruin our honeymoon."

"And nothing will, I promise." Tommy told her, but as he said some emotion flickered across his face, regret, sadness maybe.

Lori's forehead crinkled in concern, "What is it?" she asked

Tommy shook his head, "Nothing," he insisted, "I was just thinking about…nothing."

"You mean Merton."

Tommy nodded guiltily in response. Something told him he had just broken his promise. Not a day had passed during the last two years that he hadn't thought about Merton. Not in the days leading up to his funeral or in the weeks after that when he and Lori began to grow closer again, Tommy clutching to her for support for fear that he might break down. He was even thinking about Merton on the night that he proposed to Lori, standing on the pagoda in the park under the light of the half moon only yards from where Merton closed his eyes for the last time, but thinking about him quietly on his own was something else entirely to letting Lori know. He sighed, "I'm sorry," he told her, "It's just sometimes I feel, I don't know…guilty I suppose. That we can be here having a wonderful time together and he can't."

"You don't need to apologise, Tommy. Of course you miss him, I miss him too." 

Tommy bit his lip and once again held back the tears. Whoever said that time heals all wounds was wrong; he felt just the same now as he had that night in the park when he had arrived too late. He knew that he could have saved Merton if only he had arrived at the lair a few minutes earlier and that hurt even more, but he had never told Lori the whole story. His bride of three days was completely oblivious to such an important part of his life. He had never told her about his feelings for Merton or his guilt at being unable to save him and how he had lain by his lover's side all night unable to find the strength to do anything but cry, like some lost lonely dog pining for it's dead master, protecting him even after death. "I'm still sorry, I shouldn't have mentioned it, I don't want to ruin this for you." he said.

Lori shook her head, "I mentioned it, not you, and nothing could ruin our honeymoon for me. As long as we're together everything will be all right. And anyway, Merton would be happy for us, I'm sure."

"Merton would have still being trying to get you to change your mind and marry him instead until we said 'I do.'" Tommy said, "But you're right, he'd have been happy for us, eventually."

"I love you."

Tommy kissed Lori on the lips again, "I love you too," he told her.

Lori turned over to expose her back to the sun and Tommy laid back down, staring upwards through eyes covered by his sunglasses. He wondered where Merton was now, if he was anywhere. He had never known what the Goth had believed happened after death, but wherever he was, Tommy hoped he was happy. Still he couldn't shake the feeling that he was betraying Merton with every kiss he and Lori shared.


	3. All Grown Up

_Re-write the Past  
Chapter 3: All Grown Up_

  


"Are you happy?"

Tommy looked up in surprise at Lori's question.  She stared at him intensely, waiting for a reply.  He nodded, "Of course I'm happy," he told her truthfully, "why wouldn't I be?"

Lori shook her head, "No reason," she sat down next to him and he put away the reports he had been working on.  "It's just, you could have done anything you wanted.  Played professional football, joined the police, been a superhero, why did you choose to teach high school football in Pleasantville?"

"I couldn't have played football, you know that.  Sooner or later someone would have gotten suspicious.  They'd have tested me for drugs or something and found out I wasn't human.  Besides, I like it here.  This is where my family is, and all my old friends.  I enjoy my job too."

"I know you do, but there's something else isn't there?  Something that's keeping you here."

Tommy shook his head, "Not really," he said, "it's just that there's a lot of memories here.  I don't want to leave them behind just yet.  And every now and then there's still some supernatural bad guy that needs me to kick its butt all the way back to Hades."  He smiled as he realised he'd said the right word for once.

"Not all of those memories are good."

Tommy looked at her, he knew what she meant and he nodded.  "Enough of them are, though.  Like the memory of the time I met you, or the time I proposed, or the time Merton spilled that stuff on the floor and Tim and Travis slipped over."

Lori laughed, "You're right," she said, "I just wanted to be sure you were okay."

"I'm fine," he promised, "will you be ready to go in about an hour?"

Lori nodded, and left to get changed.  Tommy watched her go, turned back to his work, then thought better of it.  The things Lori had said had struck a chord.  He never really thought about it, but somewhere inside him he ached for the lives he could have had.  If he hadn't been a werewolf he would never have had to worry about being found out.  He could have been a footballer, a hero to thousands of kids.  It had always been his dream when he was younger.  If he had decided to leave Pleasantville in search of adventure, been a real hero, the sort that he used to pretend to be during his last year at Pleasantville High, saving the world, protecting the innocent.  

But that dream had died along with Merton when he had realised that the innocent couldn't be protected.  He didn't want to be responsible for hurting anyone else he loved.  If anything happened to Lori he would never forgive himself, just like he couldn't for what happened to Merton.  And finally the big If.  If Merton hadn't died.  What sort of a life could they have had together?  What could they have done?  He didn't know, and he wasn't sure he wanted to.

There was no point in dwelling on what might have been.  His life was as it was; as he had made it through a series of decisions, mistakes and triumphs.  Tonight he was supposed to be celebrating anyway.  His parent's silver wedding anniversary.  They had to be at the party soon.  Twenty five years together, it seemed like an eternity.  He wondered whether he and Lori would still be together after twenty five years.  Part of him hoped so, but if things went according to plan, he was due to go back in time before that, and change things so they wouldn't marry at all.  He felt a pang of regret at that thought.  He almost wished he didn't have to do it, he loved Lori with all his heart, but he loved Merton too, and he knew that he had to try it, no matter what happened.  When he got his chance to re-write the past, he had to take it.


	4. The Party

The Party 

In the future, when Tommy looked back on this night, the night everything changed, it was always with uncertainty over whether it was a good thing, but as it was happening there was no doubt in his mind.  He was living through a nightmare.

Tommy and Lori walked the half mile to his parents' house hand in hand, both dressed smartly and carrying their nicely wrapped gift, a matching set of plates and bowls.  Lori had wanted to buy a silver set of knifes and forks, but Tommy had reminded her that whenever they went over his parents would probably use them.  He didn't like the idea of having to eat with gloves on.  If he and Lori ever did have a silver anniversary, he was going to have to be very careful when he opened the presents.  Yet another practical consideration of lycanthropy. 

There was a bright half moon lighting up the street and the sunny cloudless weather they were having meant that every star in the night sky was visible.  They reached his parent's house, the house Tommy had grown up in, in less than ten minutes.  Already the house was full of guests.  Dean was sitting in his usual chair, wearing his best clothes.  Even though he had finally moved out a year ago, he still claimed the chair in front of the television whenever he worked up the energy to walk home.  Tonight was obviously one of those special nights.

Tommy and Lori went through all the usual hellos and hugs.  Half the town was packed into the house and the garden, Mr and Mrs Dawkins were both minor celebrities even though they were no longer in the public eye as often.  They were friends with almost everyone in the town.  It was lucky, Tommy thought to himself, that his parents had gotten married in the summer.  If the party had been in the winter it would have been impossible to fit everyone in the house and out of the cold.  

 Bob and Sally Dawkins were talking to a group of friends in the kitchen when Tommy finally found them to give them their present.  The night passed fairly quickly and it was almost midnight when Tommy left Lori chatting to one of her old friends and wondered out into the back garden.  Some of the guests had gone home, mostly the ones that had brought young children, and the remainder were in the sitting room, talking, to Dean's irritation, over the sound of the television.  Tommy sat down on the step and was just beginning to relax when he heard a crashing sound, followed by a scream, and it wasn't coming from out on the streets of Pleasantville, it was inside the house.  Before he even had time to think, he was on his feet and inside the house.  He ran into the sitting room to see an evil looking…thing.  He didn't know what to call it, Merton would no doubt have had book loads of information on the subject, but to Tommy all that was important was it was evil.

It was just over six feet tall, with long, sharp fangs, a redish hue to its skin, eyes and ragged hair.  It was crouched on the floor by the window, shards of broken glass lay on the floor around it, where it had smashed through the window.  It stared straight at him as he entered the room and hissed loudly.  Tommy just had the chance to register two more of the creatures lurking outside, when the first one jumped up, launching itself at him.  There was no chance to think, before he knew what was happening, the creature had knocked him backwards hitting his head hard on the floor.  A mixture of pain, anger and readiness to fight caused Tommy to wolf out.  He pulled the creature off of him and threw it across the room.  The impact against the wall seemed to have no effect, it got up and came at him again.

Unable to stand and watch Tommy fight alone, Lori joined in, just as the other two creatures jumped in to the room.  "Get out!" she yelled to the rest of the guests, half of them had already ran away, but the remainder were standing, frozen in fear at the scene they were witnessing.

With two of them fighting, using the broken glass as makeshift daggers, two of the creatures were soon dead and a third, finding itself alone, jumped back through the broken window and limped away surprisingly quickly.

Tommy just had time to sigh a sigh of relief before the full enormity of what had just happened hit him.  He and Lori shared a look of panic, then nodded to each other, each knowing what they had to do.  Tommy leaped through the window and ran around to the back of the house, trying at the same time to de-wolf and praying that the fact that he had turned into a werewolf in front of his friends and family wasn't as obvious as he thought it was.

Lori walked into the kitchen, where most of the guests were hiding, "It's alright," she said, "they've gone now, the monsters and the werewolf."  Some of the guests relaxed on hearing that, but others weren't so easily calmed down.

"Tommy!" said Mrs Dawkins loudly.

A look of worry flickered over Lori's face, "He went out," she said as convincingly as she could, "he probably stayed hiding outside when he heard what was going on."

"No," Sally was shaking her hear from side to side, "didn't you see?  The werewolf, it was Tommy!"


	5. Flee

_It's been years since I updated this. Sorry about that! I doubt anyone is still reading after all this time, but I'm going to continue it, and I'm going to finish it. And it'll be less than five years between chapters from now on, I promise. Wow, five years? Has it really been that long..?_

* * *

_Re-write The Past_

_Chapter Five - Flee_

"The werewolf, it was Tommy!"

Lori shook her head, eyes wide with panic as she looked around the room. The other guests, even those who hadn't realised the truth at the time were nodding in agreement. The volume of the room raised from hushed, subdued shock to murmurs of conversation, each word further concreting in the minds of all present, the truth that they had tried so hard to conceal. It was out now, too late for containment, too many people knew. Within a few hours it would be all over town.

Still shaking her head, Lori pushed through the crowd of shocked bystanders and outside into the cool evening air. Once free of the house, she began to run home, feet pounding the sidewalk, lungs heaving with effort until she reached the house she shared with Tommy.

The door was unlocked, she slipped inside and sank to the floor leaning against the wall. Her eyes closed and she took a deep breath, trying to concentrate on the silence, restoring enough calm to allow her to think clearly.

"Is everyone alright?"

Lori gasped, realising a moment too late that the voice sounding from the darkness belonged to Tommy. She nodded, "I think so, but..." she faltered, trying to think of the right words to explain what had happened.

"How bad is it?" That was one of the thinks she loved about Tommy, he always seemed to know what she was thinking, she never had to explain when something was wrong, he just understood.

"Bad." She began to climb to her feet and Tommy, still wolfed out crossed the room and offered her his hand. As she took it in her own, Lori noticed that he was shaking. "Your mom saw that you were the werewolf, and I guess she was just so surprised that she said it, and everyone there..." she took a gulp of air, "What are we going to do?"

Tommy took a step back and picked up a small backpack from the floor that she hadn't noticed until now. "We're going to leave," he said, passing the bag to her and picking up one of his own. "Hopefully just for a few days, until this blows over, but I've packed all the important stuff, just in case we can't come back. Passports, credit cards," he paused, "false identities..."

Lori ran a hand through her hair, "You had all this ready, didn't you? You knew that this was going to happen."

"I knew that it might, it's always been a possibility. I thought it would be better to be prepared and never have to use it than need to run and have to leave everything behind."

A war was going on inside Lori's mind. Leave everything behind. No matter how prepared Tommy had been, that would be what they were doing, possibly forever. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she too had known that it may come to this one day, but she had squashed the thought down, planning to deal with it when the day came. Now that it had, she found herself completely unprepared . She nodded. "We should go. We probably don't have a lot of time."

Tommy closed his eyes and she saw him concentrate on relaxing, changing back into his human appearance. It was difficult for him when he had a lot of adrenaline pumping around his system. Lori had never been more afraid, she could only imagine how difficult it was to for him to change at a time like this. He managed it, and after a few moments, he reached out to open the door.

As his hand touched the door handle, he hesitated. "You don't have to come. When we walk out the door we might be walking out on our whole lives, I can't ask you to do that. You can say you didn't know. They'll believe you.

The temptation to do just that was great. The adrenaline was wearing off, leaving her feeling tired, all she wanted to do was sleep. But when she woke, it would be to a world turned completely upside down. If she left, she might never see her friends and family again, but if she stayed, she would lose Tommy. And Tommy would lose her. Tommy who had already buried his best friend, who tonight may have lost his family and friends, his job, his home. She couldn't allow him to lose her too.

She hushed all the arguments against leaving, they could be dealt with later, and turned around to open the door. "Lets go,"

In the darkness of the unlit house, she thought she saw relief flash across the features of the man she had married. They left the house, not bothering to lock the door behind them, climbed into the car and drove away from everything they knew.

As he watched the streetlights and houses of Pleasantville slowly fade into darkness in his rear view mirror, Tommy wondered, not for the first time, how things will be after he saves Merton. He wondered whether this night will still happen. Will it be Merton instead that he drags away from his whole life? He wondered whether he even cared, because right now Merton would know the right thing to do to fix everything.

He glanced at Lori, somehow managing to sleep with her head resting against the passenger side window, even in sleep her expression was one of worry and anxiety. Tommy may not be able to fix everything, but if he could just fix things for her, that would be enough...

TBC (Honestly!)


	6. On the Run

As the rising sun slowly changed the room from deep black to dirty gray, Tommy lay awake. The nights before a full moon were always difficult, they left him feeling restless, as though there were something he needed to do. He normally dealt with it by wolfing out and running around town looking for bad guys. It was different here though, he didn't know the area. He had nowhere he could hide if he needed to. Tomorrow night, when the full moon rose, he planned to stay indoors.

He looked at Lori as she lay sleeping. The stress of life on the run showed itself in the frown that creased her face even as she slept, and the way she tossed and turned in her sleep, sleeping so lightly that the slightest sound would wake her. Tommy hated himself for what he had done to her. Not the revealing himself, he had had no choice but to do that, but for bringing her with him, for not insisting that she stay behind in Pleasantville.

By now, things would have settled down. She would have been able to get on with her life. Days, even weeks may have gone past without anyone even mentioning her husband and the secret he had kept from them all. Once again, he found himself wishing he could change the past, and comforted himself with the knowledge that once Merton was saved, history would play out differently. The series of events leading to their exile would probably not even happen.

Using supernatural stealth, Tommy rolled to the side of the bed and got to his feet. The dull gray light seeping in through the dust stained curtains of the motel only added to the feeling of despair that was growing stronger with each passing day. The future held no promise, and he found himself wondering whether he would ever get his chance to change the past.

He crossed the room and peered out of the window. Rain was falling steadily onto an already sodden ground. Cars passed by outside, headlights still shining, illuminating their way through the gloom. He sighed.

"What's that?" Lori mumbled as she turned in bed to face him and opened her eyes. "Oh, it's morning? Feels like I just went to bed." She sat up. "How did you sleep?"

"Fine," he lied.

***

After a while, the days all bled into one. They would drive all day, stop for the night, wake up and drive again. Occasionally, when they had no energy to move on, they would stay still for a few days, but eventually they had to move again. The worst part was not knowing whether they needed to live like this at all. If no one was following them, they could choose a nice town and settle down into a fake life using their assumed names. But there was always the worry, the feeling that someone could be right behind them. It was impossible to relax, even for a few minutes, when the fear of being found was always there at the back of their minds.

Tommy thought often about the past. The visit from his future self had happened around five years after Merton's death. By next spring, that date would have passed. It was strange to think that Merton had been gone that long. When Tommy closed his eyes, he could see his best friend so clearly that it seemed impossible to think that when he opened them he would be gone.

He felt a hand on his arm. Lori. He opened his eyes and was back in the present.

She smiled at him, but at the same time her eyes looked sad. "You're thinking about Merton." It wasn't a question. She knew him well enough to know where he went when he closed his eyes.

Tommy didn't answer, he didn't need to. The hand on his arm pressed tighter. "Sometimes, when you do that, I worry that you're not going to come back," she whispered.

The words hung heavy in the air, Tommy placed one of his hands over hers. "I'll always come back to you," he said. He could tell from the look in her eyes that she could hear the lie.

"I know you will," she told him, and Tommy closed his eyes again, opening them in the past. His recollections seemed to be more vivid of late, it did feel as though he might become lost in them. He wondered whether he should say goodbye to Lori before he did.


End file.
